Chapter 19: Write, Run, Repeat: A Rewarding Marathon to the Phd and Wellness

I am currently a full-time doctoral candidate in a higher education administration program. I am also a runner, yogi, weight lifter, and overall workout enthusiast, but this only came about a few years ago. Originally from the Midwest, I am a first-generation college student who was raised by my mother. As a kid, I was a dancer and later a high school volleyball player who sustained myself on whatever typical teenage junk food was lying around the house. I maintained my love of sports during college where I also became a vegetarian for political and spiritual reasons. Throughout my undergraduate and master’s programs, I held live-in staff positions that provided on-campus meal plans, so I never learned to cook healthy vegetarian meals for myself because plenty of options were offered in the campus dining halls. During my master’s program in student affairs I sustained a traumatic ankle injury in an intramural softball game. This injury left me unable to walk fully for about six months and resulted in a long period of physical inactivity that eventually became an unhealthy pattern I sustained over time.